In A Moment
by CrimsonFlowerz
Summary: Two broken people meet at a street corner. Oneshot.


**In A Moment**

**Rating:** K+

**Summary:** Two broken people meet at a street corner.

**Pairing:** Sastiel

**Author's Note:** Listening to "Disengage" by Sleeperstar

* * *

"We are finished!" Sam shouts, each syllable adding more cracks to his breaking heart. "I'm done dealing with your unfaithfulness!"

"Oh yeah? Well," her voice is equally loud, as if this is a competition. "I never loved you!"

And that's it… that's how his heart breaks.

"Just leave," he demands, placing a hand over his eyes. She hesitates for a brief moment, and he hopes she's reconsidering. She doesn't continue shouting, she doesn't put up a fight. She collects her belongings and storms out of the building, leaving him standing in the middle of what used to be their bedroom.

He sits down on the bed, face in his hands, as remorse washes over him; heavy and suffocating.

He doesn't leave the house in a few days… but there is no one to worry about him. Maybe his brother, but Dean is where he sent him six months ago. In England, following his dream of studying architecture.

So after the third day of skipping his college classes and calling in sick at work, it ends up being a Saturday, but he washes up anyways, deciding he needs groceries to survive the next week.

He wears a simple plaid shirt, jeans, belt, boots… He looks at his shaggy hair in the mirror and brushes a few kinks out of it; but then he just gives up and ties it back. He goes out like that.

Walking down the sidewalk, he waves at a few of his neighbors; who wave back happily. He avoids talking to them, because he doesn't want to talk to anyone right now.

* * *

"Where's my mother?" Castiel cries, pushing away a few nurses comforting hands. "Where is she, please, god…"

His throat constricts as he is lead down a hallway by two doctors. They show him to a room where a woman lies, her body wired up to a machine. He approaches the bed, his lips parted in a breath, frozen half-way through. He falls to his knees at her bedside and fists the bed sheets hanging off the side.

"Mom," he whines, his voice broken. He hears a new set of footsteps come into the room, but he ignores them for the moment. "Mommy…"

He buries his face into the sheets crumpled up in his hands, broken sobs escaping him. He feels a hand on his back, and doesn't bother to look and see who it is. He already knows who it is.

"Shh," he hears Gabriel, his older brother, trying to hush his cries. Gabriel rubs circles in Castiel's back and pulls him into his arms. He presses his face into his older brother's business suit, letting stronger arms hold him.

"Shh, I'm here…" Gabriel whispers against his little brother's hair. "I've got you, Cas."

His mother dies in her sleep a few days later. Castiel quits his job and moves in with Gabriel, using the couch as his bed. Gabriel doesn't mind, but he's worried about his little brother. After a week of wandering about the apartment, not one once of emotion in his eyes, Gabriel finally convinces his brother to go run some errands for him.

He cleans up, shaves, and dresses up in a clean black button down, grey blazer, and black jeans. He goes out like that.

People wave at him, probably Gabriel's friends. He shyly looks away, more comfortable pretending he didn't see them. He didn't want anyone to try and strike up a conversation with him anyways, he didn't feel like talking.

* * *

Sam didn't see him, as he rounded the corner. He didn't foresee colliding into him, forcing everything they were holding from their hands and all over the sidewalk. He thanked god at least they were in a more secluded place. In fact, there was no one at all on that side walk; no one to step on his stuff.

"I'm so sorry," slips from his lips before he can stop them. "I didn't see you there."

"Oh, no," the scratchy voice of the other man comes immediately after. "No, it's fine… I should have been watching where I was going."

"Well, I guess we're both at fault then," Sam says, collecting the items the other had dropped. "Name's Samuel Winchester, in case you want to complain."

"Castiel Novak," he responds, his voice a bit closer as he bends down to help.

That's when they both look up. Castiel's brilliant blue eyes meet Sam's honey brown eyes… and in that moment, something inside both of their hearts click; as if they were finally beating after they'd long gone still.

That moment lasts about a half a second, but it feels like an eternity. They see hope in each other's eyes. They see the despair of a broken soul behind the vibrant colors of their irises.

They see something else, something hidden, but they don't have time to figure it out and the moment is over. They scramble for words to chase away the awkward silence that has settled over them.

"I should really get going, I've got to, um, be somewhere," Sam says, or rather, blurts out. Castiel manages to collect all his belongings and nods without hearing. They stand up at the same time, their eyes meeting once again, but this time they know to wretch themselves away. Sam clears his throat.

"I guess I'll be seeing you," he offers, and Castiel just squints at him.

"O-of course," he stutters after a moment and then brushes past him. Sam stands in the same spot for a minute, two minutes.

"Wait…" he tries, but Castiel is gone, and a sinking feeling fills his chest. He carries on.

It's not until later, when Sam gets home, that he notices he has the wrong cell phone. He peers at it questioningly where he set it on the kitchen counter after opening a package of sushi he got from the market.

And then, it rings.

Sam jumps nearly a foot in the air at the loudly playing orchestral music coming from such a small phone. He grabs it in a hurry, and, without thinking, he answers it.

"Hello," he says quickly.

"Hey bro, errand running going a bit late? You've been gone for three hours, just in case you didn't realize," a snarky, obviously irritated, voice answers. Sam fumbles for his voice.

"I- I-" he starts, his mind reeling for a reason why he had someone else's phone. "H-hey, sorry, um, I'm Sam. I, he… C-Castiel? Y-yeah, sorry, he… he's with me. Y-yeah… I just, he went to the b-bathroom. I thought this was my phone, b-because we have similar cell phone…"

Sam holds his breath as he hears silence from the other end. Then, all of a sudden, he hears a laughing at the other end.

"He ditched me for some guy? Wow, good one on lil' bro. What did you say your name was?" the voice asked.

"S-Sam… Sam Winchester," he responds, feeling enormous relief pour into his chest.

"You stutter often, Sam?"

"Not usually," he says, his voice becoming steadier.

"I tell you what, Sammy-boy," he continues. "Give him a good time, and I won't come hunt your ass down."

Sam swallows, briskly walking over to his coat and shoes. What has he gotten himself into?

"Y-yeah, sure," Sam says, slipping his coat on and tying his shoes.

"Name's Gabriel, Sam," he laughs on the other line. "Remember it."

Sam is already out the door.

* * *

Sam searches every street, runs in and out of every store, and finally spots Castiel's grey blazer in the fourth bar he'd looked in that night.

Or well, he hopes it's him, because he's had about six other awkward confrontations so far and didn't want any more.

"Um, excuse me," he walks up to the man he believed was Castiel. He looked the same from the morning: rumpled clothes, ruffled hair, and those big, beautiful, sad, blue eyes. Sam is surprised when he sees a prick of tears in his eyes, ready to spill over at any moment. He isn't surprised at the pink tinge to his cheeks from a little too much to drink.

"W-what..?" Castiel asked, his voice trembling. He tries to squint, but ends up blinking, and a tear rolls down his cheek.

"I have your…" Sam starts, but can't possibly continue with the way Castiel is looking at him. His resolve fades and he slides into the seat across from the broken man. "Hey, it's me, Sam, from earlier today. Are you okay?"

Castiel hiccups, causing more tears to fall down his face. Sam reaches over the table at that and wraps a hand around Castiel's shoulder and squeezes reassuringly.

"Hey, shh, don't do that," Sam says softly. He rubs down the other man's arm, feeling Castiel lean into the touch just a bit.

"I'm sorry, I am…" Castiel apologizes, fiddling with an empty shot glass on the table. He hiccups again, and Sam gets up. He goes over to Castiel's side and helps him up.

"How much did you have to drink?" Sam asks, trying not to make it sound invasive. Castiel shakes his head.

"I already p-paid," he stutters, bracing himself against Sam's frame when he realizes he can't walk right.

"Would you mind if I took you back to my place?" he asks carefully. Castiel nods as they make their way out of the bar. Almost immediately after the get out, Castiel pushes himself away from Sam, bends over, and throws up. It's nothing but a watery mess that looks more like a bunch of spit than throw up, but he feels terrible anyways. Sam calms him down, rubbing circles in his back.

It works for a few moments, but then Castiel seems to break down completely. He turns to his only source of comfort within reaching distance, and that happens to be Sam. He clings to Sam's shirt, sobbing into it. Sam wraps his arms around Castiel's much smaller frame hesitantly, thanking God that he'd chosen a more secluded bar where there weren't many people.

* * *

Castiel wakes up in an unfamiliar bed with a pounding headache. He momentarily doesn't care, and instead of investigating, he curls deeper into the covers and pillows. The bed feels large, like it was made for two people. He rolls onto the other side, relieved to find empty space. He then thinks to feel himself up, registering that he was, in fact, still wearing clothes. Although, the clothes he is wearing are less than what he remembers putting on yesterday. His blazer and his pants are missing.

"Hhmm?" he attempts to question where he is, but it just comes out as a muffled jumble of sounds. He lays back down, his migraine making it hard to keep his eyes open, let alone move around. He tucks himself back down into the infinitely comfy sheets and comforter. He falls back asleep in time to see Sam's worried expression appear in the doorway.

A few more hours later he wakes back up to the smell of warm, freshly baked bread. It wafts into the room and makes his mouth water. His headache is gone. His skin is tingling, sensitive from being trapped under the warm blankets for so long. He slips off the bed and falls face first onto the floor, pulling the covers along with him.

"Cas?" a voice calls urgently. He hears the door swing open. He scrambles to a sitting position and looks up to see Sam's soft brown eyes.

"S-Sam," he stutters, suddenly hyper-aware of his surroundings. "Where am I?"

"You're in my bedroom…" Sam says, trailing off as he remembers just how wasted Castiel had been. "No, no not like that! You were just so, well, drunk. You didn't tell me where you lived and your brother-" he cut himself off.

"What about my brother?" Castiel asks, frantic. "I don't even know you, how do you know Gabriel?"

"I can explain," Sam starts. "When we ran into each other, we accidentally grabbed each other's phones. Gabriel, your brother, called asking where you were and I lied and told him you came home with me and he threatened to come after me if I didn't take good care of you."

Silence fills the room as the both of them process what happened. Cas is the first to speak.

"Oh," he says bluntly, no longer afraid for his virginity. "T-thank you…"

Sam nods and breathes out a sigh of relief.

"Want some breakfast?" he asks.

"Will there be bread?" he asks back.

"Yes."

"Then yes please," he quirks an appreciative smile. "I would love some breakfast."

* * *

It's years before they actually realize what happened when they first met. Years of meeting again and again. Years of coffee dates and walks in the park and late nights watching bad movies. Years of getting closer and closer. Years of getting more and more comfortable, more touchy, more personal, more everything.

In fact, it's exactly 8 years from the day they first met when Sam catches Castiel's face in his hands during one of their winter cuddle fights and kisses him until they're both breathless.

And in that moment, the day they first met had played all over again; their eyes locked, but now they were so much more. Now they know just what they saw in each other's eyes all those years ago.

It had been love.

**~End**


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